Carlos Meléndez Chaverri (23 June 1926 – 12 June 2000) was a Costa Rican historian. Meléndez was the son of Saturnino Lizano and Chaverri Orfilia Chacon. He married María Lourdes Doubles Umaña, who bore him five children: Silvia María, Lucia, Diego, Alberto and Pablo Meléndez Doubles. He won the Magón National Prize for Culture in 1993.

Education

He began his primary studies at the Escuela

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and continued them at the Central School of Puntarenas. His father Don Saturnino moved the Meléndez family then moved to Limon, where he finished his primary education at the School Tomás Guardia. After spending a year in that province, the family returned to Hall where he entered the Ecole Normale de Costa Rica, being a student of renowned professors such as Fernando Vargas Fernández Gámez Solano Uladislaus "Don Lalo" and Marco Tulio Salazar Salazar. On 13 December 1946, Carlos Meléndez concluded secondary education, having passed exams in

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

. He earned a BA in

Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

with a major in History and Geography in 1952 at the University of Costa Rica

Work

His first job was at the Normal School (later Liceo de Heredia) between the years 1948 to 1953. He was founding director of the Liceo Nocturno Alfredo González F. Heredia, a post he held from 1953 to 1960. In those same years he was Head of the Section of

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and History National Museum of Costa Rica. He joined as a professor at the University of Costa Rica since 1958 and in 1960 became a full professor along with Sam Parr. He was Director of the Department of History and Geography (now School of the Faculty of Social Sciences), University of Costa Rica between 1960 and 1969. His biggest title was the Professor. She worked there until 1986 when it was pensioned. He was Ambassador to Costa Rica in Spain from 1985 to 1986.

Foreign studies

Historical research conducted in 1965 in

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

, with a grant from the OAS in 1973 and lived in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

as the scholarship, for research in the Archivo de Indias in Seville, the Historical Archive and the National Academy of History in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. With Quince Duncan he wrote that the life of enslaved woman Ana Cardoso was one that was common, but often unrecorded, and a significant contributor to the development of Costa Rican society.

References

1926 births 2000 deaths People from Heredia Province Costa Rican historians Ambassadors of Costa Rica to Spain 20th-century historians 20th-century Costa Rican writers {{CostaRica-politician-stub